448 



OrERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



sions attaching odium to selfishness 

 or commendation to self-sacrifice, or 

 which implied generosity or kindness 

 to be anything but doing a benefit in 

 order to receive , a greater personal 

 advantage in turn. Need we say that 

 this abrogation of the old formulas 

 for the sake of preserving clear ideas 

 and consistency of thought would 

 have been a great evil ? while the 

 very inconsistency incurred by the 

 co-existence of the formulas with 

 philosophical opinions, which seemed 

 to condemn them as absurdities, oper- 

 ated as a stimulus to the re-examina- 

 tion of the subject ; and thus the very 

 doctrines originating in the oblivion 

 into which a part of the truth had 

 fallen were rendered indirectly, but 

 powerfully, instrumental to its re- 

 vival. 



The doctrine of the Coleridge school, 

 that the language of any people among 

 whom culture is of old date is a sacred 

 deposit, the property of all ages, and 

 which no one age should consider it- 

 self empowered to alter, borders in- 

 deed, as thus expressed, on an extra- 

 vagance ; but it is grounded on a 

 truth, frequently overlooked by that 

 class of logicians who think more of 

 having a clear than of having a com- 

 prehensive meaning, and who per- 

 ceive that every age is adding to the 

 truths which it has received from its 

 predecessors, but fail to see that a 

 counter-process of losing truths already 

 possessed is also constantly going on, 

 and requiring the most sedulous at- 

 tention to counteract it. Language 

 is the depository of the accumulated 

 body of experience to which all former 

 ages have contributed their part, and 

 which is the inheritance of all yet to 

 come. We have no right to prevent 

 ourselves from transmitting to pos- 

 terity a larger portion of this inherit- 

 ance than we may ourselves have 

 profited by. However much we may 

 be able to improve on the conclusions 

 of our forefathers, we ought to be 

 careful not inadvertently to let a:ny 

 of their premises slip through our 

 fingers. It may be good to alter the 



1 



id tr>«l 



meaning of a word, but it is bad to 

 let any part of the meaning drop. 

 Whoever seeks to introduce a more 

 correct use of a term with which 

 important associations are connected, 

 should be required to possess an ac- 

 curate acquaintance with the history 

 of the particular " word, and of the 

 opinions which in different stages of 

 its progress it served to express. To 

 be qualified to define the name, we 

 must know all that has ever been 

 known of the properties of the class 

 of objects which are, or originally 

 were, denoted by it. For if we give 

 it a meaning according to which any 

 proposition will be false which has 

 ever been generally held to be true, 

 it is incumbent on us to be sure that 

 we know and have considered all 

 which those who believed the pro- 

 position understood by it. 



CHAPTER V. 



ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THK ! 

 VARIATIONS IN THE MEANING OK i 

 TERMS. 



§ I. It is not only in the mode 

 which has now been pointed out, 

 namely, by gradual inattention to a 

 portion of the ideas conveyed, that 

 words in common use are liable to 

 shift their connotation. The truth is, 

 that the connotation of such words 

 is perpetually varying, as might be 

 expected from the manner in which 

 words in common use acquire their 

 connotation. A technical term, in- 

 vented for purposes of art or science, 

 has, from the first, the connotation 

 given to it by its inventor ; but a 

 name which is in every one's mouth 

 before any one thinks of defining it, 

 derives its connotation only from the 

 circumstances which are habitually 

 brought to mind when it is pro- 

 nounced. Among these circumstances 

 the properties common to the things 

 denoted by the name have naturally 

 a principal place, and would have 

 the sole place if language were regu- 



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